The Portland daily press., 1887-06-16
THE MEcANTic BOOM.
Effect Of the Canadian Pacific on the
Monson ouarries.
A BONANZA Opened UP In the Mar
kets of the Great West.
New and Interesting Uses to Which
Maine Rock Can be Put.
Especial to the Press.l

Especial to the Press.l
MoNsoN, June 15.-The entrance of the
Canadian Pacific into Maine has heretofore
been an event of which the practical effects
have not been very generally realized. But
now the people of Piscataquis county, at
least, are beginning to talk of the great I'M
pulse which the new road is to give to their
Industries. Here at Monson is one industry
In particular, the managers of which expect
will receive a new life from the new line.
Brownville is the home of the roofing slate
industry of Maine. For years the quarries
there have been worked, and they still are in
satisfactory operation. In 1867 some Welsh
men from Brownville, in prospecting in this
vicinity, discovered the Monson vein. They
found it a mile and half long and $50 feet
wide. On either end the dip is lost, on the
one side in Hebron Lake, and ON the other
side in Monson Lake The vein was opened
in 1872. Since then fifteen or twenty quarries
have been opened in different parts of Pts
cataquis county; but it is only at this place
and at Brownville that work has been car
ried on successfully. Indeed, it can hardly
be said that the business at Monson has been
successful hitherto. For various reasons the
Monson quarries have not paid well. The
Monson slate enjoys with the Brownville
product the very best reputation. Govern
ment contracts specify it, even for buildings
in slate producing regions like Vermont. But
last spring there was reorganization of the
slate companies of Monson. The whole nine
quarries passed then under one management
"a stock company composed Of Massachu-
setts gentlemen, most of them from Salem
and Boston, associated under the name of
the Monson Maine Slate Company. There
are now working four of the nine quarries
and $50 men are employed. Six hundred and
seventy-seven car loads of slate were shipped
last year; this years output is expected to
reach total of one thousand car loads
There is also large output at Brownville.
These states can bo sent to Eastern and
own with the products of Vermont and Penn
sylvania. Monson slate Is said to have
three times the tensile strength of Vermont
or Pennsylvania products, it holds its color
where they fade, and 1t retains its original
weakens them. Where rates of freight are
not TOO high Monson slate has the swing of
the market. In the east and southern ports
that can be reached by water there is ready
market. But the freight on slate from Mon
son junction to Boston is S45 a carload, and
as 1T goes on to points west and inland the
freight rates put it to great and fatal dis
advantage in competition with the inferior
products of Vermant and Pennsylvania 1t
Is in this respect of freight rates that the
Monson manufacturers expect great results
from the Canadian Pacific. The new road
will be handy to them, Cat Brownville it runs
almost by the quarries,) and the manufac-
turers have assurances that when once the
great line is in operation, slate can be put
into cities as far west as Chicago and Min
neapolis at $45 car load, the same rate that
1t now costs to land car load in Boston.
The great possibilities held out by such
facilities for western shipments are having
very st stimulating effect on the business
here. The slate manufacturers are confident
that when once they can get their best quail
ity of slate into the markets of the
great West at reasonable terms, they
can drive their Vermont and Penn
sylvania competitors from the field.
They can give better article at no greater
cost. 1t IS natural, then, that the advent of
the Canadian Pacific engineers and contrac-
tors, and the hustle and activity now dis
played along Moosehead Lake should fill
the hearts of the people of Piscataquis coun-
ty with new hope. The days of their isola-
tion are over, they hope.
An interesting development of the slate
industry is now going on here. When damp
from the quarry the slate splits readily into
the even sneets that look so neat in house
roofs. But when the slate has dried it loses
this tendency to separate into layers and be-
comes tough and solid. 1t is so soft. howev-
er, that it may be sawed, planed and turned
by machinery. 1t can even be sawed into
fancy articles with jig saw, and turned in
a lathe into unique little articles. At Mon
son they are preparing to saw the slate into
sinks, tubs, tiles, mopboardS, mantelpieces
and other articles used in houses. They
will also turn it into columns for monuments
and expect to use it for ANYTHING for which
marble may be used. The slate can be
worked to great smoothness and takes a
good polish. Toombstones, more. enduring
than marble and more elegant than the old
slate toombstones that mark the resting
places of the men and women of Revolution
ary days, will also be made of Monson slate.
The manufacture of the school states is also
to be carried on extensively here.